I am passionate therefore I am: The interplay between entrepreneurial passion, gender, culture and intentions

Abstract

We investigate the role of gender and culture on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intentions, using social cognitive theory as the underlying theoretical framework. We place our research in two culturally different nations, namely, the United Kingdom, which belongs to the Anglo cluster and Greece, which belongs to the Mediterranean cluster. Our results demonstrate the direct (positive) effect of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial intentions, but also unveil that despite the correlational relationship between passion and gender suggesting that women have greater passion than men, it is men’s passion that is a marginally stronger predictor of entrepreneurial intentions. We also find that cultural context plays an important moderating role in the relationship between passion and entrepreneurial intentions. But contrary to our expectations, we find that Greece compared to the UK is more conducive to the entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intentions relationship. Implications for research and practice are discussed.